Local notebook makers to contract 15.5%: Digitimes

By Camaron Kao / Staff reporter

Local notebook producers are expected to post a 15.5 percent contraction this year from last year, a faster pace than the 10.8 percent annual decline for global notebook shipments, as Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) continues to increase notebook production in house, research house Digitimes Research said.

Reduction in global notebook shipments indicates that tablets are continuing to erode notebook sales this year, the Taipei-based researcher said.

Total shipments of tablets are expected to grow to 250 million units this year, exceeding notebook shipments of 174.34 million units, it said.

The nation’s notebook makers are expected to ship 146.4 million units this year, down from 173.26 million units a year ago, the research house said in a report released on Friday, while worldwide notebook shipments will decline to 174.34 million units this year from 195.36 million units a year ago.

As a result, Taiwanese notebook companies’ global market share will drop to 84 percent this year from 88.7 percent a year ago, the researcher said.

Next quarter, global notebook shipment is expected to grow 4.8 percent year-on-year, helping slow the decline in total shipments in the second half to 6 percent, or 7 percent annually, from a double-digit percent annual decrease in the first half, the report said.

Some notebook companies will out-perform their peers in the second half because of new product launches, Digitimes Research senior analyst Joanne Chien (簡佩萍) said in the report.

Apple Inc is scheduled to launch its new MacBook Pro in October and Lenovo will benefit from its overseas market expansion, Chien said.

Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) is expected to grow, riding on recovery in commercial notebooks, she said.

Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s top contract laptop maker, will benefit from the growth of its customers Apple and HP in the second half of this year.

Another local PC contract maker, Inventec Corp (英業達), will also see growth in shipments because it secured more commercial notebook orders from HP, Chien said.